THE SOMERTON Intermodal Terminal, located 23km north of the Port of Melbourne, is on track to start handling rail freight from late 2025.

The $400-million Aware Super-backed Intermodal Terminal Company (ITC) development is expected to be the largest-capacity intermodal terminal ever built in Australia.

Work is 65pc complete on the Somerton Intermodal Terminal. Photo: ITC

Phase one aims for an annual capacity of up to one million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU), and a doubling is expected with phase two.

ITC chief executive officer Mishkel Maharaj said approximately 65 percent of the terminal has been constructed.

Mr Maharaj said the terminal will provide Victorian primary producers and regional exporters with the option to access more streamlined and cost-effective rail freight.

Wheat, rice, and pulses are expected to be among the exported commodities passing through Somerton in volume.

“The new terminal will offer agribusinesses in regional Victoria and southern New South Wales the option to better consolidate and stage containerised freight movements of farm commodities destined for markets in the Asia-Pacific region,” Mr Maharaj said.

“With the future Somerton Intermodal Terminal having a direct connection to Victoria’s extensive broad and standard-gauge networks and dual-gauge port-shuttle network, regional exporters can efficiently haul by rail containerised agricultural commodities from paddock to port.”

Initially the terminal will feature nine rail sidings to handle the loading and unloading of 600m port shuttle services and 1500m and 1800m interstate freight trains.

Mr Maharaj said the Somerton terminal will also include several container parks and electric-powered machinery and equipment.

Business park acquired

In addition to the intermodal development, Aware Real Estate in partnership with Barings also recently invested $600M to acquire the Austrak Business Park, a 99ha industrial estate at Somerton.

Announced in August, the estate’s plans feature a mix of existing buildings, the intermodal terminal, and development land.

Mr Maharaj said the Somerton precinct will offer customers the opportunity “to co-locate warehousing and related logistical services”.

“A billion dollars has now been privately invested to deliver a fully integrated large-scale freight and logistics precinct in Melbourne, with supply-chain customers having the benefit of being able to access interstate, regional and port shuttle rail-freight services at one central location.

“The future Somerton Intermodal Terminal will allow regional exporters to efficiently assemble containerised commodities in a planned and staged approach to allow the timely and synchronised ordering and delivery of stevedoring and shipping services at the Port of Melbourne.”

Beveridge terminal update

North of the Somerton terminal is the National Intermodal Corporation’s (NIC) Beveridge Intermodal Freight Terminal, backed by the Federal Government, and currently in the planning-and-design phase.

In its Annual Report 2024 released last week, the NIC confirmed the terminal would be completed in three stages, with the first to be operational in 2026.

“Our plans at Beveridge…propose to deliver Australia’s largest and most sustainable intermodal precinct, which on completion will include 850,000 square metres of warehouses and capacity for 500,000 TEU,” the report said.

“We have submitted plans for the development of the first stage, Stage 1A, to the Victorian authorities in late 2023 and these plans are currently under consideration.

“Stage 1A involves the construction and operation of a permanent rail connection to the existing Melbourne-Albury Sydney rail-freight corridor, together with sidings, an interim intermodal terminal and associated infrastructure.

“This initial terminal will then be incorporated into the second stage of development, stage 1B, which includes a larger intermodal terminal and a co-located warehouse precinct.”

The Beveridge terminal is one of four projects being progressed by the NIC, with the 243ha Moorebank Intermodal Precinct in south-west Sydney the only one under construction.

The Parkes Intermodal Facility in the Central West of New South Wales and the South East Queensland Inland Rail Terminal at Ebenezer, near Brisbane, are currently in the business-case stage.

NIC was also leading work on the proposed Western Interstate Freight Terminal to be located at Truganina in Victoria, but development on this project was this year put on hold.

Source: ITC, NIC, Aware Super